The Game to End All Games
by Skryr
Summary: The stakes have never been higher. The fate of the Universe As Humanity Knew It lay in the hopes of four mortals and their God Emperor against the full and total might of the undivided Ruinous Powers. The trivial yet impressive Poker Game to End All Poker Games was nigh. And no one will rest until the victors stand over the defeated enemy one last time.


THE GAME TO END ALL GAMES

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Warhammer. Neither does the Lord of Time, the Changer of Ways, the Great Architect of Fate or the Highest Conspirator Tzeentch.

So I found myself enlightened once more, and the most interesting of dreams, almost a prophetic one, overtook me. I was compelled, be it by the God Emperor or the chiefest

of Ruinous Powers to take up by role as scribe yet again, and describe in great detail the most glorious of battles.

Lo and behold, THE GAME TO END ALL GAMES!

* * *

The Room was filled with the sounds of intense concentration, similar only to the lack of sound known as silence. Tensions were high, the stakes of this war equally so. The fate of the entire Universe As Humanity Knew It was up for grabs by the victor of this tournament.

This battle would decide everything.

The battleground had been chosen to be a meager, however quite sturdy, table. It was comprised of the finest cardboard in the Imperium of Mankind, blessed by the Adeptus Mechanicus in the most rigorous of rituals, and passed by the highest of the Inquisition's officers. To the eyes of Indrick Boreale, everything was ready for the war that would define the hour.

And he could not wait.

* * *

The Room was split between the two contesting factions, the two forces that currently fought for control of the Universe As Humanity Knew It. On one side stood (as well as ethereal and omnipotent beings could stand) the four lords of Chaos.

The Changer of Ways, the Architect of Fate, the Master of Fortune and the Great Conspirator were all titles that He had chosen for Himself, but his true name of Tzeentch, not only being both literally unspeakable (and taboo to attempt to do so) by humans was one that He found Himself quite fond of. It reflected His belief of being entirely and completely unpredictable and inconceivable. It humored Him immensely.

The Chaos God of Fate surveyed his temporary compatriots and brothers of Chaos. To His right stood the Plague Lord, the God of Decay, Father Nurgle. Though the Lord of Time could not fathom the mortal senses, even He admitted to being able to smell the Lord of Flies' stench. It permeated the room similar to a vulgar sacrifice that had been rejected by its deities, merely to be left unmolested atop the altar and awaiting final judgement by the scavengers of nature. Nurgle manifested as a massive blob of fetid waste compiled by the most unholy of bandages, which were also covered in maggots and the undead like.

Behind Him was the Blood God Khorne. Khorne appeared as a humanoid creation, but towering and hostile. The God Tzeentch knew of the bloodlust that lurked in Khorne's essence, begging to be unleashed and only slated by carnage that the Universe As Humanity Knew It could not begin to comprehend. A red haze surrounded the Lord of Skulls like an impermeable mist, bearing sign even to the most unskilled of observers that its wearer possessed the utmost rage at even the lowest of unsightly behavior.

Lastly was the youngest and most complex (exempting the Lord of Complexion Himself, Tzeentch mused), the Prince of Pleasure Slaanesh.

The Master of Seduction was an entity that Tzeentch could almost not fathom. Constantly did the appearance of Slaanesh change, becoming both more offensive and alluring with each horrid transformation. He (if Tzeentch could truly call Him a He) emitted an aura of maddening sound so terrible that even the Changer of Ways knew mortals could not stand before Him and hope to remain sane.

The Architect of Fate looked to the opposite side of the Room, where the defense of the Universe As Humanity Knew It bore witness to the combined might of the Ruinous Powers. The Emperor of Mankind Himself stood in the center of the assembled group, reflecting everything that Tzeentch found abhorrent in humanity.

His form was enshrined in magnificent (and Tzeentch thought of such terms of subjective relativity) glowing armor, accentuating golden sunlight. He was simply, the life of the Universe As Humanity Knew It, its eternal protector, though today, Tzeentch mused, was the day to prove such things.

Nearby stood the enemy of the Master of Fortune. Shoulder with the God Emperor stood Lord General Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed. The Master Strategist. The Ultimate Tactician. Lord Tzeentch still did not accept defeat, and as it had seemed to Him, neither did the Lord General. Tzeentch ground his ever changing ethereal claws into the ground at the thought of savoring every last droplet of misery that the Lord General would exhume when the Ruinous Powers destroyed their false God Emperor.

Accompanying the Lord General were two individuals who were both similar and dissonant, Tzeentch sensed. Dressed in crimson armor with golden trim were these humans, towering over the miniature Lord General by far, but nonetheless unimpressive to the Lord of Change.

The one on the left possessed pale skin similar to the God Emperor, but unlike his Liege did not have any hair to cover his head. The other was of darker skin and also hairless. Tzeentch scoffed at the limitations of the humans in their corporeal forms.

The last human present was of the utmost strangest variety. A figure cloaked in a dark uniform and equipped with a strange piece of headgear that Tzeentch recalled humans knew as a 'hat'. What a despicable term. The human wearing such garb stood with a regal pose, and looked on the Chaos Gods assembled with what Tzeentch assumed was contempt. The arrogance of such impunity!

Finally the God Emperor broke the impenetrable silence with words understood by all. "Let the game begin." With a flick of His hand, the table was transmogrified into a glorious equivalent of which the Game that was to be played was already established appeared on.

Chairs (or their most relevant forms for the Ruinous Powers) were brought into existence where the figures would sit. But before Tzeentch could do any such thing as what the humans recognized as 'sitting', a mighty explosion rocked the Room and a portal of impurest Empyrean fire filled the walls.

A dark figure shrouded in shadow and oozing malevolence stepped out of the portal and was made visible to the occupants of the Room. The Lord Tzeentch recognized the being as Malal, the fifth God of Chaos, the Renegade of the Warp. He had made cause to summon the Anarchic One as part of His plan to destroy the God Emperor's forces, but He had only half expected Malal to actually arrive. To say the least, the Lord Tzeentch found Himself quite pleased with this event.

Malal took a seat adjacent to both sides, at the opposite head of the table where the God Emperor sat. He looked about the various allegiances represented in this Game and finally gave the equivalent of a human nod, signaling his eagerness to begin the war.

And like that, the battle began.

* * *

Millennia carried on after millennia. Lord Tzeentch had observed with great fervor and attention to detail the battles that had been waged on the simple battlefield medium. Dozens of campaigns and Black Crusades had been initiated across the card-like avatars of the entities present, and no sooner had the battle begun in earnest had it progressed to the ultimate climax.

The combined power of Chaos Undivided against the God Emperor and His tenacity had reached the final battle. Everything that had been fought for had led to this moment. The End of Days had arrived.

The Space Marine Commander that Lord Tzeentch had recognized as the one called Boreale deployed a King of Brave Hearts against a similar Queen of Diamond Despair belonging to the legions of Slaanesh. However, such a foolish act of daring devotion was crushed by the Lord of War Khorne and his counter attack via a transcending King of Death Clubs.

Then it appeared that the Powers in play had reached a stalemate. The Hand of Chaos that had been wrought against the God Emperor's forces was perfect; a Flush tactic of utmost royalty. What could combat this?

Lord Tzeentch, in all His omnipotent glamour, was convinced that victory for the Ruinous Powers was assured. Even against the total tenacity of Captain Diomedes and Commissar Cain's battalions of Brave Hearted Soldiers, which were slain by the Diamond Legions of Slaanesh (granted Tzeentch had almost lost comprehension of that maneuver), and even despite the failures that were Malal's varying campaigns of war waged against the God Emperor's defenses, including an admittedly humorous uprising of anarchist farmers and their simple arsenal of agricultural Spades that was hilariously inept (and subsequently slaughtered).

Curiously, the Lord General Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed had remained strangely unmovable. Despite the Lord Tzeentch's best efforts, not a single emotion had been roused from the Strategist, not even a whimper or a smile. It was almost too evil to be true, the Lord Tzeentch thought to Himself. Nay, it could not be so. It was a simply a product of superior planning and execution. The force of Chaos Undivided and their legions of warriors was simply too much for the false corpse of a decaying God Emperor.

And then it happened.

* * *

The shout was heard by everyone and everything present. "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" The war cry of the Lord of Rage echoed across the ears of the protectors of the Universe As Humanity Knew It, and despite its dismal demoralizing effect, they fought on.

Concurrent Commissar Ciaphas Cain found himself lost in the convoluted war. He had reached this point in the conflict by his survival skill and pure luck, not strategy. That was best left to the Lord General, who was often said not to have even removed himself from his tent as to not interrupt his intense concentration whilst planning the wars prior to this one.

Even the deadly aura and deadlier stench from the Lord of Decay had been kept at bay as nothing more than a noxious breeze by the God Emperor's power and the human's sheer force of will.

It appeared as though all was lost however. The insurmountable force of the Ruinous Powers surrounded that of the defenders of the Universe As Humanity Knew It. Five Kings of Chaos stood against them, and though the counter attack had not yet been played, Commissar Cain had long since deduced that perhaps humanity was at its end.

But before his eyes one of the most amazing miracles of the God Emperor occurred. The ultimate maneuver, the combined strength of the best Aces of the Space Marine Chapters, five Terminators of the highest caliber, advanced and stepped into battle. It was a massacre, but at the end of it all, the Imperium of Mankind stood victorious.

Commissar Cain found himself dumbstruck, flabbergasted even, by this show of might. All hope had been lost! What source of inspiration had struck so that the forces of humanity could garner their defense?! The ability to maneuver the Terminators in such a fashion required the best of tactical geniuses to perform…

And then the answer seemed to reach everyone at one simultaneous moment. Amidst the cacophonous screams of war and despair of the name of the culprit, Commissar Cain found himself accompanying the defenders of the Universe As Humanity Knew It in this shout, albeit for exclamatory remarks of gratitude and congratulation rather than rage.

"CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!"

And so it was done.

The Lord General Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed rose, which did little to affect his short stature. He grinned a devious though mirthful smirk upon his ancient lips, and such was the last scene to be seared into memory of everyone present.

Humanity, and the Universe As Humanity Knew It, had survived to live yet another day.

* * *

Well...

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